You should have received a postcard from NYSUT asking you to call and/or email State Senator John Flanagan, chair of the NYS Senate Education Committee. If you haven’t done it yet, please do so this week (if you didn’t get the card, see the picture below).
To drive our point home, this Friday, we, along with other NYSUT locals, will picket in front of State Senator John Flanagan’s office. If you are serious about wanting to reverse the horrific things that are happening to public education, you need to join us between 3:30 and 5 PM outside his office at 260 Middle Country Road in Smithtown.
- As Chairman of the Senate Committee on Education, Flanagan has blocked two pieces of NYSUT supported legislation (stopping testing in K-2 and protecting the privacy of student data collected by the testing companies) which were passed virtually unanimously in the Assembly.
- He is the only Long Island legislator to accept money (over $10,000) from Michelle Rhee’s pro-testing, anti-union PAC.
- Senator Flanagan is one of only two State Senators who are taking money from ALEC (The American Legislative Exchange Council, a powerful lobbying group which promotes, among many other things, legislation to undercut public education).
- Senator Flanagan has been holding invitation only hearings on education reform, but somehow has neglected to invite representatives from the school districts within his legislative area.
As I keep saying, over and over. You can complain all you want to me or your colleagues about the tests, the cuts, APPR, etc, but the only way we’ll actually make things better is through political action.
BE THERE:
Friday, November 1st, 3:30 – 5PM
Senator John Flanagan’s Office
260 Middle Country Road
Smithtown, NY
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